Back-to-basics paleolithic diet gaining popularity in US

Published: Friday, October 12, 2012 at 04:29 PM.

Marty Raines’ typical meal includes a lot of raw or steamed vegetables and grass-fed meats. She doesn’t eat beans, potatoes or bread, and she usually doesn’t garnish a meal with salt or pepper.

When she eats a grilled chicken salad, she pours straight vinegar and oil over it as a dressing.

“I don’t buy any dressings off the shelf,” she said. “And if I can’t pronounce an ingredient on the label, that generally means I shouldn’t be eating it.”

For dessert, she enjoys a few apple slices, drizzled with butter and cinnamon. She washes everything down with water.

Raines, a nurse practitioner, is following the Paleolithic or “caveman” diet. She bases what she eats on whether or not it could be found, dug up or killed 10,000 years ago. If it wasn’t around back then, she simply doesn’t indulge.

“It’s a different way of eating, but I enjoy my steamed vegetables and I feel better since starting this diet,” she said. “I don’t feel as sluggish in the middle of the day. You need to think about food as fuel for your body. As opposed to a big bag of Doritos, I eat a big plate of vegetables.”

On a recent Thursday, she discussed her dinner plans for that night: A bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich, minus the bread.

Marty Raines’ typical meal includes a lot of raw or steamed vegetables and grass-fed meats. She doesn’t eat beans, potatoes or bread, and she usually doesn’t garnish a meal with salt or pepper.

When she eats a grilled chicken salad, she pours straight vinegar and oil over it as a dressing.

“I don’t buy any dressings off the shelf,” she said. “And if I can’t pronounce an ingredient on the label, that generally means I shouldn’t be eating it.”

For dessert, she enjoys a few apple slices, drizzled with butter and cinnamon. She washes everything down with water.

Raines, a nurse practitioner, is following the Paleolithic or “caveman” diet. She bases what she eats on whether or not it could be found, dug up or killed 10,000 years ago. If it wasn’t around back then, she simply doesn’t indulge.

“It’s a different way of eating, but I enjoy my steamed vegetables and I feel better since starting this diet,” she said. “I don’t feel as sluggish in the middle of the day. You need to think about food as fuel for your body. As opposed to a big bag of Doritos, I eat a big plate of vegetables.”

On a recent Thursday, she discussed her dinner plans for that night: A bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich, minus the bread.

“They didn’t have bread back then,” she said. “But they did have pigs.”

Jessica Griffin, a licensed dietician, said the Paleolithic diet has been around for about two years but has recently grown in popularity, especially among those who do Crossfit training, a high-energy, intense workout routine, which Raines and her husband are actively involved in.

“One guy in our gym lost 40 pounds by switching over to Paleo ,” Raines said. “I would recommend anyone give the diet a try.”

Tal Young, owner of Crossfit Spartanburg, said they push the diet because it helps people recover between workouts.

“It’s a diet that is easy for your body to process,” he said. “Sometimes when you get those sugars and glutens and bad carbs in there, it just creates a lot of inflammation throughout the body. It’s also really, really good as far as weight loss.”

But Paleolithic dieters don’t follow a specific diet plan because there is such a wide variety of foods they can eat.

“We just tell people to go with foods that they like,” Young said.

Griffin said Paleolithic dieters believe the reason we have such high rates of obesity and diabetes and heart disease is because we are putting foods into our bodies that they can’t handle and are not genetically programmed to handle.

“There are good points (to the diet),” she said. “It’s absolutely better than the typical American diet.”

The problem with the typical American diet, Griffin said, is that it consists of too many calories and too many carbohydrates.

But Griffin said she has a few concerns about the “caveman” diet.

“There are certain things your body needs that this diet doesn’t include, such as whole grains and beans, which are good for you,” she said. “ There’s benefits to eating raw and cooked vegetables, but cooking does break down some of the nutrients. There are other nutrients and antioxidants that are brought out by cooking. That combination of cooked and uncooked vegetables is important.”

If you’re interested in starting the Paleolithic diet, or any other new diet, Griffin encourages you to talk to your doctor first.

“Always get a doctor’s approval, then make a sustainable plan and stick with it,” she said. “Be reasonable.”